I attended todays game with the hope that our Intrust team could make a late run for the semi's. As we were running 9th and with a bye next week it was vitally important to beat Wyong today who were 4 points ahead of us running 7th.
On paper Wyong were the far superior side then Wenty as Wenty had 9 regular Ron Massey Cup and 1 Holden Cup players playing up a grade. Size wise it was a big mismatch with Wyong being a huge team and nearly every Wyong player was bigger then their opposite Wenty number. The mismatch in sizes looked like a small u16 team playing a large u18 team, particularly in the forwards. When you consider Wenty were missing regular guys such as Kelly, Cornish, Faraimo, Nelson, Tanginoa, O'Brien, Pritchard and Toutai it didn't feel me with confidence we could get the win and keep our finals hope alive.
We started the game off well with an early try to Ualesi next to the posts. Soon after this try, Wyong's big pack starting rolling forward dominating us in the middle for the next 30 minutes. Leading into half time I thought Wenty were hanging on for the life and desperately needed a rest as they were being pummelled in the middle. With a score of 16 to 6 Wyong's way at the break I thought Wenty did very well just to hang on. My gut feeling was at half time that Wyong would put another 4 or 5 tries on our tired looking Wenty forwards.
I'm not sure what Cayless said at half time but when the Wenty team returned they looked refreshed, fast and a completely different team in all facets of the game. As per the first half Wenty scored the first try in the second half and then went on to score another 3 consecutive tries to take the score from 16 to 6 (half time Wyong's way) to 16 to 30 (Wenty's way with 7 minutes to go).
With two plus tries needed from Wyong to achieve, the last 7 minutes became exciting as Wyong scored and had all of the ball. At one stage it looked like Wyong would score a second try with 3 minutes to go to pressure Wenty to the bell. Thankfully Wenty went on to win the game 30 to 22 against a very strong Wyong team.
My observations were:
- Honeti Tuha was the best on field and appears to be a better fullback then winger.
- Sam Gorman and Cameron King played well and swapped positions a lot throughout the game.
- John Folau is very difficult to tackle and has more power in his legs at and through the line then any other Wenty player. On a side note I saw John up close when he was warming up and was concerned how much weight he has lost. I spoke to one of the Wenty officials about John's slimline shape and he confirmed John has lost 8 to 10kg. John now looks like he weighs around 95 to 97Kg.
- Alex Twal does not stop working even when he was smashed time and time again against players 10 to 15kg more then himself. Alex will need another 7-10kg of weight to successfully compete at NRL level.
- Yileen Gordon moves well and is a natural footballer.
As Wenty have a bye next week we should have a number of Wenty players returned from injury for the vital Round 22 game (vs North Sydney, who are running 8th), such as Cornish, Tanginoa, Pritchard and Toutai. Wenty may also have Faraimo and O'Brien back for Round 22 if Jennings and Scott return to the NRL in two weeks time.
Go Wenty go!
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Thanks for that wrap up of the game Big Dave. Very well reported. Keep it coming if you go to other games.
Thanks mate. I was lucky the game was up my way on the Central Coast close to my house. It was a strange game to watch as Wyong was far superior in the first half and Wenty smashed Wyong in the second half. I think Wenty will scrape into the semi's, particularly if they beat North Sydney after the bye. If Wenty can get a team list close to what they had in the first 8 rounds they will be very hard to beat. With the lack of team on paper Cayless had he must be a very good coach!
Interesting re: Folau, Dave.
Did they give a reason why Folau's trimmed down so much, or you didn't ask them?
I did asked because I was concerned he had been sick. The official just said he has been out injured with a leg injury. I thought he may have been sick with a serious virus or something similar as he looked extremely thin, unusually thin. He still has massive legs but his upper body is trimmed right down. John's upper body is on par with Schulte. My guess is that he is now around 95-97kg, well under 100kg. The last time I saw John in the flesh he was probably around the 112kg. To me he looked like he has been in hospital on a drip for two weeks as he has lost a massive amount of weight. It is unusual to lose so much weight when you have a leg injury and cannot run and train. I think John could convert to the forwards as he has very good leg power in the tackle, just needs to be motivated. I'd put the number 13 on his back and tell him to do a minimum 8 runs a half and a minimum 15 tackles a half. I honestly think with the right training John could become a strong NRL utility player off the bench as he could play centre, wing, secondrow and lock. I don't think John will ever progress in the centres, but he could in the forwards.
Thanks for the report of what you saw today BD. It's vastly appreciated.
Thats a big win.
Considering we had 9 regular Ron Massey Cup players and 1 Holden Cup players it was a massive win. Therefore, I think Cayless can coach and or is a great man motivator.
cayless is a future great coach and with luke burt we have two good coaches if brad pulls the pin , our playing roster look gook for 2017, and the coaching stuff fine, let hope ,mr fix it just does that in the club max good luck..
It wouldn't surprise me if Cayless is promoted to an NRL assistant next year and Burt promoted to Wenty coach.
John didn't get the chance to run in open field to test that hammy and to see if he was faster (being significantly lighter). What I did notice, particularly when I was standing close to the sideline was that one on one John is the hardest Wenty player to tackle. At the line John drops his body height and has that forward upper body push at first contact that Inglis famously has. John is a slow-ish centre, but in the forwards he would be a quick mobile backrower with footwork at the line. I would keep John in the top 25 next year but I would play him in the backrow in the trials and 9's to see if he can make the switch.
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